Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/303789
PHOTOGRAPHY BY AP PHOTO/DAVID SMITH R honda Fleming was already a star on May 20, 1957, when she took the stage at the newly opened Tropicana. A Hollywood actress since 1943, she had appeared in films with some of the biggest names in the business, including Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Rock Hudson, Charlton Heston, and Ronald Reagan. Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound catapulted her to fame in 1945, and she went on to star in popular movies like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Pony Express. In her Las Vegas stage debut that night, Fleming stepped out in a shimmering "nude" gown by Don Loper, and Los Angeles Herald-Express columnist Jimmy Starr buzzed, "The atomic bomb didn't explode last night, but a new and lovely nightclub star—Rhonda Fleming—blasted her way at the Tropicana and made pretty music that was strictly big time stuff." Fleming had trained to be a singer from an early age, although the movies turned out to be her ticket to fame. But then nightclub impresario Monte Proser, former owner of New York's famed Copacabana, approached her to star in a revue at the new hotel. She had just three weeks to prepare for her stage debut, with only 17 hours of rehearsal and a choreographer she had to share with Judy Garland. Her opening act was frequent Vegas headliner Eddie Fisher. Fleming is now 90 years old and devotes herself to philanthropic causes, including two medical centers at UCLA that bear her name. Her grandson Johnny Brenden, who owns Brenden Theatres at the Palms, maintains the fam- ily's Vegas connection. But Las Vegans will always remember Rhonda Fleming in the finale of her nightclub debut, in this Billy Livingston feathered calypso costume, singing and dancing to "An Occasional Man." V Big-Time Stuff AT THE TROPICANA, RHONDA FLEMING SHOWS 'EM SHE CAN SING. BY NICOLE RUPERSBURG Actress Rhonda Fleming had always wanted to be a singer, but it wasn't until Vegas called that her dream came true. 20 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM F ront Runners 020_V_FOB_FR_Fleming_MAYJUNE_14.indd 20 4/21/14 1:01 PM